Monday, February 29, 2016

"What do you have in common with Tom Hanks?" That's the question that video production teacher Deja Brandeis posed to Vol State students last week in the halls of Caudill Hall. No, it's not a trick question or the start of a bad joke. Tom Hanks went to community college and wrote about his experience in an Op-Ed piece last year in the New York Times.

Tom Hanks: Wikimedia

Now students and faculty are teaming up to produce a video dedicated to the popular actor that they're hoping will go viral. The idea was the brainchild of VSCC President Dr. Faulkner, After reading the Op-Ed he was inspired, in more ways than one. "Wouldn't it be wonderful if he would be our graduation speaker, since he's a community college graduate?"

"To have Tom Hanks come here?" exclaimed one student after hearing of the plan. "That would mean the world. That would be incredible if he did something like that."

"We've already issued an invitation to the governor to speak at the May 2017 commencement. But, having said that, if Tom Hanks agreed to come I would bump the governor," said Dr. Faulkner with a laugh.

No word yet on when the video will be available, but be on the lookout and get ready to make it go viral!

Gaynell Buffinet Payne is a writer, single mother, and student at Volunteer State Community College. She also blogs for Vol State's Returning Adult Learners.

This week at Vol State and a reminder about Spring Break next week:March 2 Think Fast Game Show, Cafeteria, 12:45pmMarch 3 Transfer Fair: university and college reps, Ramer, 10am-2pmMarch 3 Movie: “He Named Me Malala” One Book, One Community, Thigpen- Rochelle, 6:30pmMarch 7-12 Spring Break. No classes, offices will be open

Friday, February 26, 2016

"Nineteen-year-olds don't pray about much, they make things happen," Kwame Lillard told a rapt audience. Both he and Matthew Walker, Jr. spoke of their experiences as Freedom Riders in the 60s to a full room yesterday at Vol State.

They certainly did make things happen. Under leaders such as Jim Lawson and Reverend Kelly Miller they attended nonviolent workshops and sit-in protests as their ranks swelled in numbers. An incident of violence against a student protestor actually helped to spur the movement on. Support for their vision grew.

"Sacrifice always does that," explained Lillard. "We're a nation built on sacrifice. If not us, who? If not now, when?"

Six thousand people marched on downtown Nashville and confronted the mayor after that incident. When pressed, the mayor finally admitted that he thought segregation was wrong. Then the community decided to hit them where it hurts the most - the pocketbook - as they began an economic strike. Soon Nashville became the first southern city to integrate its lunch counters.

They also related their harrowing experiences on the Freedom Rides buses through Alabama and Mississippi. Both Lillard and Walker made a point to mention that these buses were integrated. "50% of the riders were white, and 50% were black," said Lillard, holding up a poster that showed all the pictures of the former protestors. "It's important to note that."

The two men ended the talk on a humorous story. One day they decided to go swimming at the nicest white public pool in the city, which at that time was at Centennial Park. "We walked up in our swim trunks carrying towels and said we want to go swimming," they remembered with a chuckle. "So the mayor drained all the public pools in Nashville to keep us out. They filled in the one at Centennial and built the art center over it."

Gaynell Buffinet Payne is a writer, single mother, and student at Volunteer State Community College. She also blogs for Vol State's Returning Adult Learners.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Get ready for playoff Basketball at Vol State! The TCCAA Region VII Tournament comes to the Vol State Gallatin campus next week. The Pioneer Men play at 4pm on Monday, February 29 and the Vol State Women play at 6pm. We are hosting ten teams from across the state for the tournament. We have a website with the brackets, game details and rosters.Cheer on your Pioneers!

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Please
help me in congratulating Gallatin’s own Station Camp High School product
Kendrea Duke in being selected as TCCAA Women’s Basketball First Team
All-Conference and TCCAA Women’s Basketball Freshman of the Year.
She has averaged 16pts 11rebs 3 blocks per game en route to these honors while
maintaining a 3.0 GPA. I feel fortunate to have her here at Vol State,
because a rival school also wanted her but I matched their scholarship offer
and she has been a tremendous asset to the Women’s Basketball program and Vol
State community. Kendrea leads the nation in field goal percentage, and
is top 20 in rebounds and blocked shots. Samantha Parker also leads the
National Junior College Athletic Association in 3 point field goal percentage
with 60%. These two tremendous players are local and came to Vol State on
athletic scholarships. - Otis Key-Head Women’s Basketball Coach

Also
D’Marco Steele from the Vol State men’s team made Second Team All-TCCAA.

Get
out the cheer on the Pioneer men’s and women’s teams next week for the TCCAA
Region 7 tournament, which will be held here at Vol State.

There's a new feature on your My Vol State page. It's a
place for you to seek help if you’re having academic problems and also a great
resource for information about Vol State. It's called the College Success
Zone on My Vol State. As you may know, the College Success Zone has been
the name for our academic support programs for several years now - the Language
Center, SI and tutor.com to name a few. The College Success Zone on My Vol
State is just the latest addition to that line-up.

College Success Zone on My Vol State

We have several resources available on your My Vol State web
page. Login to My Vol State. Click on the “Resources” tab. Login to
the College Success Zone using your same Username and Password.

What you will see:

1. My Success
Network--- Displays the people and services that are available to help you
succeed. -Your Success Network is where you can find key contact
information.

2. Need Some Help?
Have a question but don’t know who to ask? Raise your hand! We will
come to you!

3. Service Catalog---A
catalog of services at the click of a button. A listing of all services
offered at the college.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

You take a seat at the lunch counter of a Walgreen's Drug Store in downtown Nashville. Everyone is staring and others are starting to react. They shout racial slurs at you. Some people attempt to hit you. They yell in your face. You are a black college student simply trying to be served at a counter reserved for white people. You are risking arrest, and even your college education, with this act of defiance. You have probably read about the civil rights struggle in America, but what was it really like? Thursday we will have two veterans of the Nashville sit-ins and Freedom Rides on campus to tell us. Matthew Walker, Jr. and Kwame Lillard were on the front lines of the Nashville segregation protest movement. The event is at 12:45pm in the Rochelle Center of Thigpen Library.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

My son is in school now but I’ll always be a homeschooler
at heart. My philosophy has been teach him to love reading, and he’ll be a
learner for life. It is, after all, the same philosophy that got me where I
am today and eventually prompted me to come back to school to pursue an English
degree.

When I started taking classes at Vol State that were
reading-intensive I sometimes found myself, well, drifting and easily
distracted. Add to that an only child who is used to more of my attention, and
getting through 100 pages of Gilgamesh becomes quite a chore.

“Do you want me to read to you?” I asked, wondering if I
could kill two birds with one stone. “Sure!” he replied excitedly.

Honestly, I thought he’d get bored fifteen minutes in, but
he stuck with me. It took me two days to read the assignment to the both of us,
stopping often to explain things to him. By the time we were done, however, I
understood the story in depth. Since then we’ve read everything from Hamlet and
Gulliver’s Travels to Psychology and how the brain works, and I’ve lectured him
on my World History notes and taught him some French. This isn’t to say that I
read him everything, and he has by no means been able to keep up with it
all. He helps me through the important highlights, not to mention keeps me from
dozing off with my face in a book.

When I talk about learning to balance my time, this is one
of my secrets to success. My son gets a very rounded education and I get closer
to my degree. We both get to spend more time together, then we treat ourselves for
our hard work with hot cocoa and Godzilla movies. That’s what I call a win-win.

How do you balance your time between work, family,
and school? Share with us in the comments!

Gaynell Buffinet Payne

Gaynell Payne is a writer, single mother, and student at Volunteer State Community College. She also blogs for Vol State's Returning Adult Learners.

Monday, February 8, 2016

All Vol State students now have free access to the online tutoring service Tutor.com. It is available 24 hours a day and seven days a week. The link to Tutor.com is part of the eLearn page for each of your classes. The tutoring service covers Math, Business, English, Writing, Science, Health Sciences, Computers, and Foreign Language. You should access it via your course eLearn page for login.

If you have problems or need help with Tutor.com visit the Learning Commons location for your campus. You can also call 615-230-3676.

Just remember...you can use the above link to get more info about the service, but to use it you need to go in through your course eLearn page. That's the only way you can currently login.

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Auditions for the Spring production of A Midsummer
Night’s Dream will be held in Caudill Hall February 8, 9, and 10th
from 3-5pm. Those interested in auditioning should prepare a 2 to 3 minute
monologue.

Imagine being attacked on your school bus and shot in the
head, simply for speaking out about the educational rights of women. That's
what happened to 15-year old Pakistani student Malala Yousafzai. The book
“I Am Malala” is the subject for the third year of the Sumner County One Book,
One Community read, sponsored by Vol State and Sumner County public libraries.
People love to talk about books they are reading, so one can imagine the
conversation if everyone was reading the same book. That’s the goal of One
Book, One Community. Everyone in the community is encouraged to read “I Am
Malala” and then discuss the book themes.

“I Am Malala” tells the story of how the student became an
activist at age 11 and went on to international notoriety. She survived the 2012
shooting after a long and arduous recovery. She has since continued to speak
out for the educational rights of women and people all over the world. In 2014
she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work. The One Book, One Community
book read has a series of events to discuss the challenges Malala addresses,
and also to look at the struggles of students here in Sumner County. Money,
family issues, crime, and even war in their native country, are all challenges
that local students have faced on their road to education.

Vol State will host a screening of the movie “He Named Me
Malala” on March 3 at 6:30 p.m. in the Rochelle Center of the Thigpen Library.
There will be a “Struggle for Education” panel held on March 23 at 12:45 p.m.
and 6:30 p.m., also in the Rochelle Center of the Thigpen Library. The events
are designed to get people talking, even if they have not yet read the book.

There are many events coming up at Sumner County libraries.
There will be a Gallatin Public Library book discussion on Wednesday, March 16
at noon. A discussion luncheon will be held at the Portland Public Library at
11:30 a.m. on March 22. Millersville Public Library will hold a discussion
brunch on Saturday, March 23 at 10:30 a.m. For a complete list of events and
more information about the book visit www.volstate.edu/OneBook.